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To, the infinitival particle, used in general as at present. The infinitive having the force of the subject of the sentence, f. i. “to get it is thy duty,” Ven. 168. “to die and go we know not where, . . . 'tis too horrible,” Meas. III, 1, 118. of the predicate: “to speak on the part of virginity is to accuse your mothers,” All's I, 1, 148. of the object: “'gins to woo him,” Ven. 6. learned to sport, 105 etc. etc. of the preposition of (or a genitive): “despair to gain,” Lucr. 131. “take the pains to go with us,” Err. V, 394. “your power to draw,” Mids. II, 1, 197. “the art to love,” Shr. IV, 2, 8. “this is no month to bleed,” R2 I, 1, 157. “I'll give thee scope to beat,” III, 3, 140. “easy ways to die,” Ant. V, 2, 359. “some falls are means the happier to arise,” Cymb. IV, 2, 403 etc. of the prepos. for or to: “earth's sovereign salve to do a goddess good,” Ven. 28. “unapt to toy,” Ven. 28 “to bid the wind a base he now prepares,” Ven. 28 “bound to stay,” Sonn. 58, 4 etc. etc. preceded by so or such (== as to): Tp. II, 1, 168. H4A I, 2, 240 etc.; cf. Cymb. IV, 2, 200. == in order to: Ven. 227. Ven. 227Ven. 227Tp. I, 2, 107 etc. etc. Serving, in short, as at present, to give a special determination to any general notions, negative as well as positive. To treat this matter thoroughly, would almost be as much as to write an English grammar; therefore, referring the reader to the several words, which are followed by an infinitive with to, we confine ourselves to such cases as have found no place in other articles.1) Referring not to single words, to individualize a general notion, but to the whole sentence, and denoting the particular circumstance under which the matter takes, or is to take, place; a) equivalent to a gerund preceded by in or by: “poor queen of love, in thine own law forlorn, to love a cheek that smiles at thee in scorn,” Ven. 252. “what dost thou mean to stifle beauty and to steal his breath,” Ven. 252 “thou art well appaid as well to hear as grant what he has said,” Lucr. 915. “poor hand, why quiverest thou at this decree? honour thyself to rid me of this shame,” Lucr. 915 “shake hands to torture me, the one by toil, the other to complain how far I toil,” Sonn. 28, 7. “mine own true love that doth my rest defeat, to play the watchman ever for thy sake,” 61, 12. “I have broke your hest to say so,” Tp. III, 1, 37. “what do you mean to dote thus on such luggage?” IV, 231. “to think upon her woes, I have wept a hundred several times,” Gent. IV, 4, 149. “I weep myself to think upon thy words,” Gent. IV, 4, 149 “I'll make you amends next, to give you nothing for something,” Err. II, 2, 54. “may he not do it by fine and recovery? Yes, to pay a fine for a periwig and recover the lost hair of another man,” Err. II, 2, 54 “you wrong me much to say so,” IV, 1, 66. “certain stars shot madly from their spheres, to hear the sea-maid's music,” Mids. II, 1, 154. “I'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell, to die upon the hand I love so well,” Mids. II, 1, 154 “you would not use a gentle lady so, to vow and swear and superpraise my parts,” III, 2, 153. “thou but offendest thy lungs to speak so loud,” Merch. IV, 1, 140. “I will not shame myself to give you this,” Merch. IV, 1, 140 “lie not, to say mine eyes are murderers,” As III, 5, 19. “thou strikest me sorely to say I did,” Wint. V, 1, 18. “thou art not holy to belie me so,” John III, 4, 44. “I was too strict to make mine own away,” R2 I, 3, 244. “I shall grieve you to report the rest,” II, 2, 95. “no worse can come to fight,” III, 2, 183. “thou canst make no excuse current, but to hang thyself,” R3 I, 2, 84. “my hair doth stand on end to hear her curses,” I, 3, 304. “what meanest thou to curse thus?” Troil. V, 1, 30. “yet to bite his lip and hum at good Cominius, much unhearts me,” Cor. V, 1, 48 (== that he bites, or his biting). “to answer that, I should confess to you,” Rom. IV, 1, 23. “what mean these masterless and gory swords to lie discoloured by this place of peace?” V, 3, 143. “never mind was to be so unwise, to be so kind,” Tim. II, 2, 6. “to fright you thus, methinks, I am too savage,” Mcb. IV, 2, 70. “to know my deed, 'twere best not know myself,” II, 2, 73. “what mean you, sir, to give them this discomfort?” Ant. IV, 2, 34. “I the truer, so to be false with her,” Cymb. I, 5, 44. “the wandering wind blows dust in others' eyes to spread itself,” Per. I, 1, 97. Peculiar passage: “and suffer the condition of these times to lay a heavy and unequal hand upon our honours,” H4B IV, 1, 102 (i. e. to suffer from these times laying etc.).
b) equivalent to a conditional clause: “to clear this spot by death, at least I give a badge of fame to slander's livery,” Lucr. 1053. “to die, I leave my love alone,” Sonn. 66, 14. “I should sin to think but nobly of my grandmother,” Tp. I, 2, 119. “a Jew would have wept to have seen our parting,” Gent. II, 3, 13. “to leave my Julia, shall I be forsworn; to love fair Silvia, shall I be forsworn; to wrong my friend, I shall be much forsworn,” II, 6, 1. “I fly not death, to fly this deadly doom,” III, 1, 185. “mine were the very cipher of a function, to fine the faults . . . and let go by the actor,” Meas. II, 2, 40. “I may make my case as Claudio's, to cross this in the smallest,” IV, 2, 178. I should wrong it (your desert), “to lock it in the wards of covert bosom,” V, 10. “I should be guiltier than my guiltiness, to think I can be undiscernible,” V, 10 “to be ruled by my conscience, I should stay with the Jew,” Merch. II, 2, 23. “you might have saved me my pains to have taken it away yourself,” Tw. II, 2, 6. “you scarce can right me throughly then to say you did mistake,” Wint. II, 1, 99. “I know not what I shall incur to pass it,” II, 2, 57. “would you not suppose your bondage happy, to be made a queen?” H6A V, 3, 111. “Nero will be tainted with remorse, to hear and see her plaints,” H6C III, 1, 41. “you shall have better cheer . . . and thanks to stay and eat it,” Cymb. III, 6, 68. “thou'lt torture me to leave unspoken that which, to be spoke, would torture thee,” V, 5, 139. The infinitive not referring to the subject of the principal sentence: “my laments would be drawn out too long, to tell them all with one poor tired tongue,” Lucr. 1617. “your falsehood shall become you well to worship shadows,” Gent. IV, 2, 131. “I'll give you a pottle of burnt sack to give me recourse to him,” Wiv. II, 1, 223. “so to study, three years is but short,” LLL I, 1, 181. “ill to example ill, would from my forehead wipe a perjured note,” IV, 3, 124. “to crush this a little, it would bow to me,” Tw. II, 5, 152. “so that, conclusions to be as kisses, if your four negatives make your two affirmatives, why then, the worse for my friends,” V, 23. “to do this deed, promotion follows,” Wint. I, 2, 356. “to keep them here, they would but stink,” H6A IV, 7, 89. “thus to have said, . . . had touched his spirit,” Cor. II, 3, 198. “to pay five ducats, I would not farm it,” Hml. IV, 4, 20. “to seek through the regions of the earth for one his like, there would be something failing in him that should compare,” Cymb. I, 1, 20. “disguise that which, to appear, itself must not yet be,” Cymb. III, 4, 148 (O. and M. Edd. that which to appear itself, must etc.). The subject of the infinitive preceded by for (cf. For): Cor. II, 2, 13. Cor. II, 2, 13II, 3, 10. Hml. III, 2, 317. Per. I, 1, 93.
c) equivalent to a causal clause: who (the pillow) “therefore angry, seems to part in sunder, swelling on either side to want his bliss,” Lucr. 389. “the beast that bears me, tired with my woe, plods dully on, to bear that weight in me,” Sonn. 50, 6. “who can blame me to piss my tallow?” Wiv. V, 5, 16. “his tongue, all impatient to speak and not see,” LLL II, 238. “nor do I now make moan to be abridged from such a noble rate,” Merch. I, 1, 126. “why blame you me to love you?” As V, 2, 109. “I cannot blame thee now to weep,” Shr. III, 2, 27. “he is grown too proud to be so valiant,” Cor. I, 1, 263. “who then shall blame his pestered senses to recoil,” Mcb. V, 2, 23. Caes. IV, 3, 10.
2) Employed, conformably to common usage, to denote a) destination; f. i. “Adonis had his team to guide,” Ven. 179. “we all were . . . by that destiny to perform an act,” Tp. II, 1, 252. “his forward voice now is to speak well of his friend,” II, 2, 94. “a very virtuous maid, and to be shortly of a sisterhood,” Meas. II, 2, 21. b) futurity, f. i.: “tongues to be,” Sonn. 81, 11. “ages yet to be,” 101, 12. “what is to come,” Tp. II, 1, 253. “I am to break with thee of some affair,” Gent. III, 1, 59. “and so in progress to be hatched and born,” Meas. II, 2, 97. “I am to discourse wonders,” Mids. IV, 2, 29. “whereof it is born, I am to learn,” Merch. I, 1, 5; cf. “are you yet to learn what late misfortune is befallen King Edward?” H6C IV, 4, 2. “yet is the hour to come that e'er I proved thee false,” H6B III, 1, 204. c) possibility, f. i. “he's not to be found,” Meas. I, 2, 180. LLL I, 2, 118. “she is a woman, therefore to be won,” H6A V, 3, 79. “that's not suddenly to be performed,” H6B II, 2, 67. d) obligation or necessity; f. i. “thou art to post after,” Gent. II, 3, 37. “she is not to be kissed fasting,” III, 1, 326. “now am I . . . to plead for that which I would not obtain,” IV, 4, 105. “you are not to go loose any longer,” Wiv. IV, 2, 128. “thou art to continue now,” Meas. II, 1, 200. “then have you lost a sight, which was to be seen, cannot be spoken of,” Wint. V, 2, 47. “why a king of years should be to be protected,” H6B II, 3, 29. “thou art to die,” Oth. V, 2, 56. adjectively: “such to be pitied and o'erwrested seeming,” Troil. I, 3, 157.
Used also, in a peculiar manner, e) to denote quality and capacity: “not gross to sink,” Ven. 150. “not an eye that sees you but is a physician to comment on your malady,” Gent. II, 1, 42. “that which seems the wound to kill,” Troil. III, 1, 132 (== deadly wound). “wert thou an oracle to tell me so,” IV, 5, 252. cf. “he could not see to garter his hose,” Gent. II, 1, 82 (could not see so as to be able to garter etc.). “the approbation of those . . . are wonderfully to extend him,” Cymb. I, 4, 21. Cor. II, 3, 182. III, 1, 81. f) periphrastically, after to be: “I am to entreat you, to con them,” Mids. I, 2, 101. “he hath been all this day to look you,” As II, 5, 34 (== looking for you). “I have been to seek you,” Oth. V, 1, 81. “never mind was to be so unwise, to be so kind,” Tim. II, 2, 6. “where there is advantage to be given, both more and less have given him the revolt,” Mcb. V, 4, 11. “courtesies, which I will be ever to pay and yet pay still,” Cymb. I, 4, 39. cf. Come.3) The active inf. instead of the passive: “savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust,” Sonn. 129, 4. “such a storm as oft 'twixt May and April is to see,” Compl. 102. “that most deeply to consider is the beauty of his daughter,” Tp. III, 2, 106. “too hard to keep,” LLL I, 1, 47. “what's to do?” Tw. III, 3, 18. “were I to get again,” John I, 259. “O that it were to do,” H6B III, 2, 3. “the lustre of the better yet to show shall show the better,” Troil. I, 3, 361. “why was my Cressid then so hard to win?” III, 2, 124. “what's to do?” Caes. II, 1, 326. “little is to do,” Mcb. V, 7, 28. V, 8, 64. “this thing's to do,” Hml. IV, 4, 44. “'tis yet to know,” Oth. I, 2, 19. “that's the next to do,” Ant. II, 6, 60.
4) The accus. with the inf. common to a far greater extent than even in Latin; f. i. “think women still to strive with men,” Pilgr. 341. “thou shalt find those children nursed . . . to take a new acquaintance of thy mind,” Sonn. 77, 12. “when I saw myself to win,” 119, 4. “whom I believe to be most strait in virtue,” Meas. II, 1, 9. “shall we thus permit a blasting and a scandalous breath to fall on him so near us?” V, 122. “who heard me to deny it or forswear it?” Err. V, 25. “will never grant this forfeiture to hold,” Merch. III, 3, 25. “this to be true, I do engage my life,” As V, 4, 171. “I feel this youth's perfections . . . to creep in at mine eyes,” Tw. I, 5, 317. “I had rather hear you to solicit that,” III, 1, 120. “I have deserved all tongues to talk their bitterest,” Wint. III, 2, 217. “we profess ourselves to be the slaves of chance,” IV, 4, 551. “which to prove fruit, hope gives not so much warrant,” H4B I, 3, 39. “myself have heard a voice to call him so,” H6B II, 1, 94. “would ye not think his cunning to be great,” H6B II, 1, 94 “they would not have you to stir forth to-day,” Caes. II, 2, 38. “and the remainder, that shall still depend, to be such men as may besort your age,” Lr. I, 4, 272.
But quite idiomatically, also a nominative and inf. joined: “it is the lesser blot, modesty finds, women to change their shapes than men their minds,” Gent. V, 4, 109. “a heavier task could not have been imposed than I to speak my griefs unspeakable,” Err. I, 1, 33. “what he is indeed, more suits you to conceive than I to speak of,” As I, 2, 279. “thou this to hazard needs must intimate skill infinite or monstrous desperate,” All's II, 1, 186. “which that it shall, is all as monstrous . . . as my Antigonus to break his grave,” Wint. V, 1, 42. “to beg of thee, it is my more dishonour than thou of them,” Cor. III, 2, 124. cf. Cor. III, 2, 124 “I to bear this . . . is some burden,” Tim. IV, 3, 266. “nature so preposterously to err, . . . sans witchcraft could not,” Oth. I, 3, 62. “which he to seek of me again perforce, behoves me keep at utterance,” Cymb. III, 1, 72.
5) Elliptical expressions: “I know not where to hide my head,” Tp. II, 2, 23 (== where I am to hide). “I know not what to say,” Mids. III, 2, 344. R2 II, 2, 100. “the king knows at what time to promise, when to pay,” H4A IV, 3, 53 etc. “and he to die for it!” Meas. II, 2, 6. “and I to sigh for her!” LLL III, 202. “O hateful hands, to tear such loving words! injurious wasps, to feed on such sweet honey,” Gent. I, 2, 105. “my own flesh and blood to rebel!” Merch. III, 1, 37. “I, that killed her husband, to take her in her heart's extremest hate,” R3 I, 2, 231. “if my shirt were bloody, then to shift it,” Cymb. I, 2, 6 (cf. the German inf. as imper.). “now, the gods to bless your honour!” Per. IV, 6, 23 (i. e. now for the gods and their power, to bestow blessings on you; the bawd's speech. M. Edd. to-bless).
6) Repeated before a second infinitive: “I am fain to shuffle, to hedge, and to lurch,” Wiv. II, 2, 25. “he teaches him to hick and to hack,” IV, 1, 68. “to scorch your face and to disfigure you,” Err. V, 183. “I come by note, to give and to receive,” Merch. III, 2, 141. “it is as easy to count atomies as to resolve the propositions of a lover,” As III, 2, 245. “to leave the Talbot and to follow us,” H6A III, 3, 20. “to see Caesar and to rejoice in his triumph,” Caes. I, 1, 35 etc. Partially repeated: “learned to sport and dance, to toy, to wanton, dally, smile and jest,” Ven. 105. “I have no one to blush with me, to cross their arms and hang their heads with mine, to mask their brows and hide their infamy,” Lucr. 792 etc.
Omitted in the second and following places: “neither eyes nor ears, to hear nor see,” Ven. 437. “as well to hear as grant,” Lucr. 915. “to live or die,” Lucr. 915 “to stand in thy affairs, fall by thy side,” Sonn. 151, 12. “to stead up your appointment, go in your place,” Meas. III, 1, 261. “grace to stand, and virtue go,” III, 2, 278. “I am come to advise you, comfort you and pray with you,” IV, 3, 55. “unfit to live or die,” IV, 3, 55 “to go with us into the abbey here and hear at large discoursed all our fortunes,” Err. V, 395. “to disgrace Hero . . . and not marry her,” Ado IV, 2, 57. “not to see ladies, study, fast, not sleep,” LLL I, 1, 48. “to speak and not see,” II, 238. to jig off a tune, . . . canary to it etc. III, 12. “to lean upon my shoulder and dally with my excrement,” V, 1, 109. “to excuse or hide the liberal opposition,” V, 2, 742. “to pity and be pitied,” As II, 7, 117. “to chat as well as eat,” Shr. V, 2, 11. “as good to die and go, as die and stay,” John IV, 3, 8. “to insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my limbs,” R2 IV, 165. “to wake a wolf is as bad as smell a fox,” H4B I, 2, 175 (Ff to smell). “to quell the Dauphin or bring him in obedience,” H6A I, 1, 164. “to crown himself king and suppress the prince,” I, 3, 68. “not to wear, handle, or use any sword,” I, 3, 68 “the sooner to effect and surer bind this knot,” V, 1, 15 etc.
7) Placed before the second infinitive, though omitted, conformably to grammar, before the first: “I should control your times of pleasure, or at your hand the account of hours to crave,” Sonn. 58, 3. “to make him much outlive a gilded tomb, and to be praised of ages yet to be,” 101, 12. “would no more endure this wooden slavery than to suffer the flesh-fly blow my mouth,” Tp. III, 1, 62. “heaven would that she these gifts should have, and I to live and die her slave,” As III, 2, 162. “that you'll marry me, or else refusing me, to wed this shepherd,” V, 4, 22. “dares better be damned than to do't,” All's III, 6, 96. “bade me come smiling, to put on yellow stockings,” Tw. V, 346. “hadst thou rather be a Falconbridge and like thy brother to enjoy thy land,” John I, 135. “didst let thy heart consent, and consequently thy rude hand to act the deed,” IV, 2, 240. make you take the hatch, to dive like buckets, etc. V, 2, 139. “bids you . . . deliver up the crown and to take mercy on the poor souls,” H5 II, 4, 103. “I desire you do me right and justice, and to bestow your pity on me,” H8 II, 4, 14. “who would be so mocked with glory, or to live but in a dream of friendship?” Tim. IV, 2, 33. “Brutus had rather be a villager than to repute himself a son of Rome,” Caes. I, 2, 173 (cf. Rom. IV, 1, 77). “I had rather coin my heart . . . than to wring . . .,” IV, 3, 73. “make thy two eyes start from their spheres, thy knotted and combined locks to part,” Hml. I, 5, 18. “how we may steal from hence, and for the gap . . . to excuse,” Cymb. III, 2, 66. “makes both my body pine and soul to languish,” Per. I, 2, 31. “she'll wed the stranger knight, or never more to view nor day nor light,” II, 5, 17. Cor. II, 1, 256.
Passages unnecessarily emended by M. Edd.: “then let them all encircle him about and fairy-like to pinch the unclean knight,” Wiv. IV, 4, 57 (M. Edd. to-pinch). “let it be rather thought you affect a sorrow than to have,” All's I, 1, 60 (M. Edd. than have it). “where these two Christian armies might combine the blood of malice in a vein of league, and not to spend it so unneighbourly,” John V, 2, 39 (M. Edd. to-spend). “you must either be directed by some that take upon them to know, or to take upon yourself that which I am sure you do not know,” Cymb. V, 4, 187 (M. Edd. or do take; some or take).
8) Great differences from modern usage in inserting or omitting it after certain verbs: “they would not have you to stir forth,” Caes. II, 2, 38. “I durst to wager she is honest,” Oth. IV, 2, 12. “still losing when I saw myself to win,” Sonn. 119, 4. 64, 10. LLL IV, 3, 168. “thou shalt find those children . . . to take a new acquaintance of thy mind,” Sonn. 77, 12. “who heard me to deny it?” Err. V, 25. Tw. III, 1, 120. H6B II, 1, 94. “I feel this youth's perfections . . . to creep in at mine eyes,” Tw. I, 5, 317. cf. besides the verbs to bid, dare, make, need etc.
On the other hand: “how long within this wood intend you stay?” Mids. II, 1, 138. “your betters have endured me say my mind,” Shr. IV, 3, 75; cf. suffer in Tp. III, 1, 62. “will you be so good as eat it?” H5 V, 1, 31. “to pray Achilles see us at our tent,” Troil. V, 9, 8. “you were wont be civil,” Oth. II, 3, 190 (Ff to be). cf. the verbs to behove, beteem, cause, chance, charge, come, command, constrain, desire, enforce, entreat, forbid, 'gin, go, help, know, list, have need, ought, perceive, persuade, please, pray, teach, vouchsafe, will, wish etc.
9) For to, == to, see sub For conj. 4, and add to the passages quoted there: “though bride and bridegroom wants for to supply the places at the table,” Shr. III, 2, 249.

Shakespeare Lexicon. Alexander Schmidt. Berlin. Georg Reimer. 1902.

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